ACES Muskegon: A Childhood Trauma Survey

I pride myself in being a trauma-informed birth worker. So, when I was chosen as a “ACE Champion” as a part of the release of a new Health West survey, I registered for and attended the one-hour training on November 17th in Muskegon Heights.

Health West, through a grant called Wellville, is conducting the ACES Muskegon survey just for county residents who are 18 years or older. Their goal is to get 3,000 people to complete the survey, using the results to raise awareness of the need for trauma-informed treatment and prevention, as well as grant funding to address the problem.

I cannot express strongly enough how much I support the intentions of this initiative! Still, I must acknowledge my deep hesitations in supporting ACES Muskegon. Although completing the survey will be easy and for most people, for those with traumatic memories, asking them to spend even 10 minutes thinking about the worst moments of their lives is a lot to ask. I don’t feel comfortable asking people to do it unless I know that there will be a serious effort to get to the root causes of violence and oppression in our neighborhoods.

As someone who is very well-versed in the theories of primary prevention, I know that for this data to be effective, it must not just lead to providing services with more compassion knowing anyone could be a survivor. Action must be taken to influence change at the highest rungs on the Spectrum of Prevention, influencing policy, legislation and organizational practices. Unfortunately, many of those involved in the dissemination and promotion of ACES Muskegon work for organizations who have misogynist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, classist, and other oppressive and exclusionary policies and practices!

The conundrum of social change is that what is palatable to those in power is the least effective and what stands to be the most effective is shut down in its earliest stages. I speak from experience too vast to include in a blog and I am not alone. I am close to many people who have lost their livelihoods due to their social justice work.

After contemplating my reasons for skepticism, I shifted my focus to thinking about my own personal healing journey. I’m always saying that I need to devote more time and energy to self-care. If I complete a survey, I will receive educational emails. Maybe I can use this survey as an opportunity to consciously carve out more time to learning about healing my own traumas and those of others.

I have a lot of respect for the Health West staff for putting in the effort to launch such a bold campaign. Kelly France and others were very supportive of me when I organized the Perinatal Care – A Trauma-Informed Approach conference in April of 2013. I believe in the sincere intentions of behavioral health professionals to make an impact on the heartbreaking abuse they see in their work every day. I’m going to take the survey and I encourage you to do the same.

4 Comments

brendann1960@yahoo.com
on January 19, 2016 at 10:49 pm

I’m not really clear on what you want, but if its my input on violence and other injustices in Muskegon county, I clearly agree that drastic measures needs to be put into play to curtail what’s happening in Muskegon county. the question is often asked,” How did we get here? But like yourselves the question is, “what can we do to stop it? I do agree that raising awareness about trauma resiliency is a positive start.

Very well said Faith. I am not surprised that Muskegon County Scored the way it did. I am truly grateful however, that we were blessed with this grant money and that we have this wonderful tool to do this study with. I am hoping that with this study, it provides great insight into how society functions when early childhood trauma invades an innocent life and how it effects the Complete life of that child with/without early intervention.

Thank you so much, Shawnee. I hope everyday for a better world for people of all ages! I am inspired by the positivity of people like you who have been such strong advocates for preventing trauma over the years. I appreciate your insight into the study. Please email me if you would like to contribute a guest article to my blog on this important topic.